If you had to describe Justin McKay’s days during football season in one word, it would definitely be “long.”

On the Guardians’ first day of camp, McKay had his new players in the meeting room at 1 p.m., on the practice field at 5 p.m., and ready to go home about 7:30.

But there would be little rest for St. Peter-Marian’s football team, as the Guardians were back at it in the school auditorium at 7 a.m. the following morning, playbooks in hand, ready to learn McKay’s offensive and defensive systems.

“We’re trying to make this feel like a college football camp,” McKay said during his first practice at SPM. “We’ve got meetings and practice in the same day, and everything we’re doing, we’re doing like a big-time program. We just got the field painted, we’ve got the music playing, and the kids have brought the energy so far.”

Indeed they had, but that doesn’t mean his captains didn’t notice the extra workload.

“It was intense,” senior captain Matt Dumphy said of the team’s first day. “It was a lot more this year, but we’re ready for it. In the past, we would maybe do four hours on the first day. This year was six or seven, but we’re learning a lot.”

More from the Sun Football Forecast:

Local football stars to watch on Saturdays and Sundays | So, if you want to keep track of the Worcester County boys now playing at football’s highest levels, you’ve come to the right place. Here is a handy list of, and outlook for, every CMass native playing in the NFL and the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision.

Worcester’s Yiadom primed for big senior season at BC | The Doherty legend’s name has come up a lot more in talks about the best players in the formidable Atlantic Coast Conference. But to senior DB Isaac Yiadom, that’s all just noise. “I don’t really listen to any of that, I just have to keep doing what I always do.”

Wachusett’s Tyler Catalina’s journey to an NFL roster spot | “I’ve got to keep working and showing the coaches I can handle anything they throw at me,” Catalina said in mid-August. Those coaches, it seems, have seen something from the 325-pounder, who has earned a backup role on the Washington Redskins offensive line.

If you had to describe Justin McKay’s days during football season in one word, it would definitely be “long.”

On the Guardians’ first day of camp, McKay had his new players in the meeting room at 1 p.m., on the practice field at 5 p.m., and ready to go home about 7:30.

But there would be little rest for St. Peter-Marian’s football team, as the Guardians were back at it in the school auditorium at 7 a.m. the following morning, playbooks in hand, ready to learn McKay’s offensive and defensive systems.

“We’re trying to make this feel like a college football camp,” McKay said during his first practice at SPM. “We’ve got meetings and practice in the same day, and everything we’re doing, we’re doing like a big-time program. We just got the field painted, we’ve got the music playing, and the kids have brought the energy so far.”

Indeed they had, but that doesn’t mean his captains didn’t notice the extra workload.

“It was intense,” senior captain Matt Dumphy said of the team’s first day. “It was a lot more this year, but we’re ready for it. In the past, we would maybe do four hours on the first day. This year was six or seven, but we’re learning a lot.”

More from the Sun Football Forecast:

Local football stars to watch on Saturdays and Sundays | So, if you want to keep track of the Worcester County boys now playing at football’s highest levels, you’ve come to the right place. Here is a handy list of, and outlook for, every CMass native playing in the NFL and the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision.

Worcester’s Yiadom primed for big senior season at BC | The Doherty legend’s name has come up a lot more in talks about the best players in the formidable Atlantic Coast Conference. But to senior DB Isaac Yiadom, that’s all just noise. “I don’t really listen to any of that, I just have to keep doing what I always do.”

Wachusett’s Tyler Catalina’s journey to an NFL roster spot | “I’ve got to keep working and showing the coaches I can handle anything they throw at me,” Catalina said in mid-August. Those coaches, it seems, have seen something from the 325-pounder, who has earned a backup role on the Washington Redskins offensive line.

Have news you or your group would like to share? Let us know by emailing it to info@worcester.ma. Be sure to include a link to the full release on your site or Facebook page so we can include it and send Sun members your way.

Rucker, Myers rated among most influential people in New England hockey

Worcester Railers HC team owner Cliff Rucker and team president Michael G. Myers have been included in the New England Hockey Journal’s 2017 100 most influential people in New England hockey list.

The 100 most influential people in New England hockey include team owners, team presidents, coaches, writers and more.

Rucker was recognized for his success in returning a professional hockey team to Worcester, and his investment in the building of the Fidelity Bank Worcester Ice Center, a 100,000-square-foot practice facility for the Railers.

Central Massachusetts may not be one of the nation’s biggest football factories, but the region does produce its fair share of talent every year.

This season, Worcester County had five players in NFL training camps, including the only player from the commonwealth selected in the 2017 NFL Draft (Grafton High School alum Obi Melifonwu was taken by the Oakland Raiders in the 2nd round, 56th overall).

On top of that, CMass natives litter rosters of Division I collegiate football programs across the country — including eight set to suit up for UMass-Amherst — and it isn’t far-fetched to believe that some of them could gain national notoriety this season.

So, if you want to keep track of the Worcester County boys now playing at football’s highest levels, you’ve come to the right place. Here is a handy alphabetical list of, and outlook for, every CMass native playing in the NFL and the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision.

From the moment he stepped foot on Boston College‘s campus, Isaac Yiadom has done his part for the Eagles.

That part may get significantly larger this season, however, as the former Doherty Memorial star has been getting talked up by national media, and perhaps more importantly, by fifth-year BC head coach Steve Addazio.

Ever since Addazio mentioned that Yiadom had the potential to be an all-conference player in an interview with ESPN, Yiadom’s name has come up a lot more in talks about the powerful Atlantic Coast Conference, and college football in general.

It seems unthinkable that after playing at two high schools, two colleges, going undrafted and switching positions, Tyler Catalina has a legitimate chance to earn an NFL roster spot.

But that’s just where the Wachusett Regional alum currently finds himself, playing guard for the Washington Redskins, and running with the backups during the team’s preseason games. Along the way, Catalina has been doubted at every step, and yet here he is, perhaps only a solid preseason performance away from being an NFL player.

Tyler Catalina signs his contract as an undrafted rookie free agent with the Redskins.

“I’ve played in so many systems, on so many teams, that I think I can adjust to anything at this point,” Catalina said of his first few weeks in the NFL. “It just is what it is. I’ve got to keep working and showing the coaches I can handle anything they throw at me.”

Primetals receives $228K state training grant

Recipient of one of the largest training grants from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development, Primetals Technologies will implement training for both new and existing employees at its Worcester facilities.

Training will include problem-solving skills, continuous improvement, lean certification, tooling and time and task management and will continue through the end of 2019. The grant, worth nearly $228,000, was one of 111 awarded, totaling $7.9 million. Grants are matched by award recipients.

Production employees will attend interactive online classes for specific competencies, engaging with video, audio and relevant images that include CNC simulators mirroring existing equipment at its manufacturing facilities at 40 Crescent St., Worcester.

For Worcester, a hub for immigrants and refugees from all over the world, this volunteer-driven initiative has become a vital component in the city’s ongoing development and its efforts to break down walls between the myriad cultures it has welcomed over the years.

“The Worcester World Cup, as the name suggests, was created specially to bring people together. We wanted everyone to come together,” said Adam Maarij, a volunteer and 2017 graduate of South High Community School.

With summer at its apex baseball season, from the big leagues to the Futures League to Little League, is at a fever pitch.

And while the Sox battle it out with the Yankees, and the Bravehearts vie for a playoff spot, a gaggle of 11- to 13-year-old all-stars from Holden recently brought home the town’s first state title — and now have a chance at the national stage.

What kind of motivation could a certified (or is it certifiable?) ace like David Price offer such a team on the rise? Hitch was wondering the same thing.

The most enduring name connecting Worcester to the National Baseball Hall of Fame is turn-of-the-century star Jesse Burkett, a two-time .400 hitter with a .338 career batting average whose namesake Little League on the city’s West Side became a part of hardball history itself by advancing to the 2002 Little League World Series.

Burkett, who married the former Ellen G. McGrath after his first season in Worcester and settled in the city until his death in 1953 — less than two weeks before the devastating Worcester Tornado killed 94 and injured more than 1,000 — is not alone on the Worcester-to-Cooperstown ledger.

Wikimedia Commons / The Sporting News / Charles M. Conlon

Jesse Burkett was a coach for the New York Giants in the early 1920s.

Indeed, there are three other enshrined stars whose careers brought them to Worcester — more on two of them and other luminaries later — but the most endearing and unforgettable character to share the lineage is the indefatigable and incomparable Casey Stengel, manager of the Mickey Mantle-era New York Yankees.

If you didn’t remember — or ever know — that the irrepressible Stengel’s famed managerial career got its start in Worcester, and included a complicated transaction that would live in baseball lore, you can surely be forgiven.

As the Hall of Fame inducts its newest class today, it seems a fitting time to take a dusty and mostly monochromatic trip down memory lane through the early days of Burkett, Stengel and baseball in Worcester.

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